Bayern Munich appeared comfortable towards the end of the contest, but they endured some nervous moments during Pep Guardiola’s Bundesliga debut.

Guardiola was unable to call upon Bayern’s major two summer arrivals, Thiago Alcantara or Mario Gotze, so there was a familiar feel to the home side’s starting XI.

Lucien Favre’s back four was also very familiar from last season, although there were changes ahead – Christophe Kramer has signed from Bochum, Brazilian Raffael played in the central attacking role, while Max Kruse’s impressive season at Freiburg means he’s started this campaign as the first-choice striker, with last season’s flop Luuk de Jong only on the bench.

The away side lined up with a standard 4-2-3-1 – two banks of four behind the ball, a central attacking midfielder supporting Kruse, and the wide players attempting to get forward on the break.

That’s roughly the shape Bayern used last season, but the major change under Guardiola has been his preference for a tilted midfield triangle – which means just one holder, with two midfielder ahead. That, of course, is the system he favoured at Barcelona, and while this Bayern formation has generally been termed a 4-1-4-1 in Germany, the midfield triangle is basically the format you expect for a side playing 4-3-3.

Schweinsteiger, it’s important to emphasise, was not 100% fit coming into this game – but for long periods here he appeared Bayern’s weak link. Early on, he was caught too high up the pitch as Mönchengladbach launched a quick attack, where they were able to break towards Bayern’s back four without any challenges. There was also a particularly poor pass played towards Toni Kroos (who was under pressure) – Mönchengladbach immediately won possession and broke past Schweinsteiger easily. It was surprising he misplaced a few passes, because Raffael made little attempt to deny him time on the ball – once opponents start pressuring him the way they press Andrea Pirlo, for example, he’ll find life even more difficult.

Schweinsteiger made zero tackles and zero interceptions in this game. Clearly, Guardiola wants a skilled passer in that position – someone who can start quick passing sequences from deep. Both Kroos and Thiago have had spells as the deepest midfielder in pre-season. It’s vital, however, that the player in that role is useful defensively – at Barcelona, Yaya Toure was a powerful physical force and decent positionally, and was eventually superseded by Sergio Busquets because of his superior positioning, as well as his good passing. Busquets was able to drop into the back comfortably to turn Barca into a 3-4-3, and although Schweinsteiger did the same here, you wouldn’t want him as your central defender should the opposition regain possession.

There’s no use being overly harsh on a half-fit player in his first match in a new position, but exploiting Schweinsteiger’s weakness was Mönchengladbach’s best chance of getting something from this game.

Long balls

Schweinsteiger was also involved in another interesting – and surprising – feature of Bayern’s play. They hit a huge number of long balls from back to front, with Dante (18), Schweinsteiger (12) and Jerome Boateng (11) all responsible for these long punts. Bayern generally attempted to pass out at goal-kicks, although when pressed they were happy to thump the ball downfield.

There were a few balls knocked towards the head of Mario Mandzukic, who won 60% of his ten aerial duels. The use of Mandzukic in the first place was interesting, given Guardiola’s previous preference for playing without a traditional number nine. Of course, with the likes of Thiago, Gotze and Martinez still set to come into the side (and the positions of others changing as a result) it’s still likely we’ll see a strikerless Bayern at one point.

Meanwhile there were also some more cultured ‘long passes’ towards the corners, designed for Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben to sprint onto.

At this early stage, it’s difficult to know whether or not this will be a feature of Guardiola’s Bayern, but it’s surprising to learn that only Augsburg (92) and Werder Bremen (83) hit more than Bayern’s 80 long passes this weekend (even when accounting for the fact that Bayern played considerably more passes than any other side, and the chances are that some of these will be long).

Ribery and Robben

Some predicted Guardiola wouldn’t appreciate Ribery and Robben, the two men who have epitomised Bayern’s approach since they first linked up brilliantly at the beginning of the 2009/10 campaign. However, in Guardiola’s first game they were the best players along with Philipp Lahm, and together Bayern’s most consistent attacking threats.

Ribery was the main man, however – the Frenchman dribbled past an opponent no fewer than 11 times, more than three times as many as any other player on the pitch. Mönchengladbach were always attempting to double up against him, yet more often than not Ribery got through – often creating space for others, like Thomas Muller (in an unusually deep central midfield role) and Toni Kroos to fire in shots.

Mönchengladbach attack down the right

The away side’s major threat came in two situations – either from winning possession and immediately charging past Schweinsteiger on the break, or attacking down the right. The full-back on that side, Tony Jantschke, was much more attacking than left-back Filip Deams, while right-winger Patrick Hermann looked to collect balls played in behind David Alaba. Raffael also sometimes drifted that way, with centre-forward Kruse generally playing to the left.

Bayern had problems with a few crosses from that flank, although Mönchengladbach’s problems with Ribery were related to their adventurousness down the right. A couple of times, Ribery found himself in advanced positions after attempting to dribble past opponents, so Mandzukic covered.

Bayern pressing

In the first half, Mandzukic looked reasonably energetic upfront but the rest of the side appeared more passive – this changed after the break, with the front five all closing down.

There was a problem with the level of compactness, however – the pressing was disjointed which meant Mönchengladbach had further opportunities to counter-attack, which again caused Schweinsteiger problems. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, the game was amazingly end-to-end, and Guardiola will have been concerned at the lack of control his side had – not only did they waste counter-attacking opportunities, they also looked vulnerable at the back.

Conclusion

“We didn’t always press well, gave Gladbach too much time, our counter-attacks weren’t always well controlled and when we lost the ball, we didn’t always get back into position straight away,” said Guardiola. Bayern’s individual quality shone through, but overall the main evidence of Guardiola’s impact was in the holding midfield role, and that was where they encountered the most problems.

Mönchengladbach can take heart from a promising performance – they attacked well down the flanks and generally looked organised and disciplined, especially in the way they protected the centre-backs.

Interesting. If I’m not mistaken, Martinez isn’t fully fit either – but wouldn’t he be a better fit for the lone holding role? Capable of dropping into the back, physical enough to play alone and capable of starting attacks with good passing.

bojan on August 13, 2013 at 11:15 am

yup..i believe that DM role fit martinez perfectly if pep wants someone who can defend and pass properly he’s definitely the man for the job!

Kevos on August 13, 2013 at 3:18 pm

problem with Martinez is that he is too slow moving the ball. I think Pep wants someone that, not only can pass the ball, but to distribute the ball and take it out of danger. Who knows, maybe if he is fit he can perform that role.

If only Schweine can do a bit of Busquets, that’ll be the perfect combination and would make Pep quite happy.

I wasn’t much of a Raffael fan during his Hertha days but I do think he adds a little dynamism to Gladbach’s counter-attacking game. Could have a good spell with Lucien Favre again. If Favre can get Arango defending in two banks of four, then I hope Raffael improves defensively in this sense. When he drives forward with pace it would also be interesting if he starts picking the right passes also.

pb on August 14, 2013 at 4:06 pm

Hertha tried to squeeze Raffael into more of a playmaker role for years, didn’t work out so well. Sure, he can play the occasional defense splitting pass, but just doesn’t seem to have the mentality to be an effective distributor of the ball on a somewhat consistent basis.

His main attributes are his bursts of speed and incredible control after receiving the ball. In that specific area he can compare to the likes of Ribery even and Favre should look to fully exploit it.

The one thing Raffael really needs to work on is his shooting though. He has a tendency to blast the ball right into the arms of the keeper and being the technical player he is he just has to do better.

was about to say the same thing myself. Martinez is perfect for that role imo

Adam Nelson on August 13, 2013 at 12:21 pm

For the first time in a long time Schweinsteiger’s place isn’t guaranteed. It’s going to be very interesting to see what kind of role he ends up playing this season. Martinez is obviously ahead of him for the DM role, and I’d suspect that Thiago might be as well. Will he be much more than Bayern’s equivalent of Seydou Keita? A strong, physical presence to bring on to shore things up, but rarely starting games?

Forza Juve on August 13, 2013 at 1:39 pm

Great to have you back for the new season Michael, keep up the fantastic work and looking forward to another wonderful season reading your analyses!

John on August 13, 2013 at 2:55 pm

If you guys agree the sole dm role will fit better martinez than schweinsteiger then what will happen to schweinsteiger?? bench?
because i don’t see him in the 2 upper midfield roles where mobility seem to be the key…

but maybe it’s muller/mandzukic upfront, gotze/thiago as 10, kroos/schweini as 8, martinez/shweini as 6
Gotze will always start, if martinez, muller, & thiago/kroos take the other spots we could end up with a schweini on the bench shocker…

Also what do ZM & you guys think of ribery & robben on theses sides? will guardiola continue like that?
Sometimes i think it would be more bardiola-like to make them switch sides for more back to center short passes, instead of this half-counter attack finishes they score with
what do you all reckon?

Taggerd on August 13, 2013 at 2:56 pm

Schweinsteiger won the ball for the first goal, so it’s not all bad.

marcao on August 16, 2013 at 9:00 am

no, i´m afraid it was a terrible mislaunched pass from gladbach.
credit to schweinsteiger for standing in the right place, but he didn´t actually have to do much for it. gladbach gave the ball away, and with with only three touches bayern scored.

Heyho on August 13, 2013 at 3:20 pm

Martinez seems perfect but he’s about to be used as a center back, at least that’s where he was used in almost every game of the preseason. Now it seems that the main formation will be boateng/ dante martinez as cb, schweinsteiger as 6 and thiago kroos as double 8. Guardiola also said tho, that although he generally prefers playing a lone 6, he will perhaps change back to a double pivot, as it might fit better to the bayern players, and as the pace of the bundesliga is very high.

So it could also be dante boateng – scheeinsteiger martinez – thiago/kroos again, with gotze and mzndzukic competing for the 9 and robben and muller competing for the right flank

But almost everyone is likely to get lots of minutes on the pitch, as guardiola wants to rotate a lot

Asterisk on August 13, 2013 at 3:49 pm

ZM, I would like to compliment you for your article on Steven Gerrard; it was understated and a nice tribute without being sentimental and looking through rose tinted glasses.

chriee on August 13, 2013 at 5:53 pm

Was really surprised how open the match was at times. Gladbach were like all Favre sides, disciplined, organized and quick on the break. That’s how they managed to get into the Euroleague a when they still had the pace and shooting of Reus.

As for Bayern, even though i know Pep likes his system he used at Barca, I’m not sure if it’s worth changing to. Bayern had an immense defence last season with not conceding a goal vs juve and barca in 4 matches and some run of what, 5 games or so without getting a shot on goal?
The defence is what you build your success on and Schweini and Martinez was probably the best partnership infront of a back 4 which I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t ever change that. Of course the whole team pressed throughout the games really good, which i guess won’t change under Pep.
But seeing how vulnerable they looked in this system, I think they will struggle against defensively smart teams which have more quality on the break than Gladbach have, like in the 4-2 loss against Dortmund.

wewew87 on August 13, 2013 at 7:39 pm

although you should be careful with the ”what would happen against better teams’ talk (they didn t do worse against city and you also shouldn’t judge them by the dormtund game, as dante, martinez, schweinsteiger were missing, which made them much much less pressing resistant) i agree about the 4123 being more fragile at the moment

but the squad and guardiola should be given some more time (at least 1-2 months) until all the mechanisms work better, and until schweinsteiger, gotze, dante and martinez are perfectly fit
as soon as the front 5 players (before the pivot) have perfected their pressing, much less counters will occur, see the first half against city…
it also takes time for the players to adapt to a higher line of defence and the slightly changed way of microtactical defending (less man marking)
in barcelona, they also conceded very few goals, at least as long as pique and puyol were playing well

but apart from that, guardiola said although he prefers playing with a single 6 and double 8, he will perhaps change the system back to a double pivot, as it might fit the bayern players better, and as the pace of the bundesliga is really high

he also said weeks ago, that he thinks he would use martinez as a cb, that’s also what happened in the preseason… that would be a waste in my opinion, and maybe he’s changed his opinion as well, as martinez seemed really slow (although not being completely fit) against negredo in half 2 of the city game… martinez might be the best choice to be stable against high pressing, and to initatiate attacks, but with such a high line of defence his pace might be a huge problem…
what’s more, boateng is in a great shape… he has developed so well the last year, imo he was the best CB of the bundesliga, even better than dante, as the brazilian got worse the last months of the season
he’s also the fastest CB bayern has…

so it’s gotta be an extremely interesting (r)evolution, the champions league winner, who beat barcelona 7-0 in 2 legs, under the lead of guardiola… let’s be glad to see this

John on August 13, 2013 at 6:29 pm

If you guys agree the sole dm role will fit better martinez than schweinsteiger then what will happen to schweinsteiger?? bench?
because i don’t see him in the 2 upper midfield roles where mobility seem to be the key…

but maybe it’s muller/mandzukic upfront, gotze/thiago as 10, kroos/schweini as 8, martinez/shweini as 6
Gotze will always start, if martinez, muller, & thiago/kroos take the other spots we could end up with a schweini on the bench shocker…

Also what do ZM & you guys think of ribery & robben on theses sides? will guardiola continue like that?
Sometimes i think it would be more bardiola-like to make them switch sides for more back to center short passes, instead of this half-counter attack finishes they score with
what do you all reckon?

marcao on August 16, 2013 at 9:15 am

interesting question about schweinsteiger – that´s the point that interests me most as well..
it should be possible to put schweinsteiger on the bench just as any other player. but i wonder whether there would be a general outcry because of his popularity.
if pep has the courage, he will definitely try to play martinez as sole DM, and leave schweini on the bench to see what happens. i can actually see that working for him too…
(IMO the experiment with martinez as CB is wasting an excellent player)

equally i think that with time he will leave out mandzukic in favour of an OM, but i think he is being careful not to change too much right from the start.

in the case of ribery and robben- i think he will stick with them (as long as they are in form). it is apparent that on a good day these two will win entire matches on their own, regardless of whoever is playing with them…

Will be interesting to see how Gotze, Thiago, and Javi Martinez fit into and change Bayern Munich’s play. Its easy to assume that Javi Martinez will replace Boateng. I think Gotze is their “False 9″ and Thiago will replace Mueller (who will move wide right (replacing Robben). Interesting since Bayern’s attacking has always been effective around Robben and Ribery and how it will affect Bayern’s play. Also, will Schweinsteiger’s new positioning affect his place in the World Cup vs. Gundogan?

Schweinsteiger will certainly improve, but my main concern is his lack of tackling. The back four will need more protection with the high line they are playing.
I would like to see Martinez in this role, but from what I have heard, Guardiola sees him as a center-back.

Great analysis, as always. I wrote about the match as well, but I failed to pick up on how many long balls Bayern played. That was surprising to see.

Well, it is only natural to compare Guardiolas work at Bayern with his work at Barcelona. But, first of all Pep is in München for like two month, I do not expect the end of the learning experience until end of the year (for both team and manager).
Secondly, I do not expect Pep’s Bayern to become a copy of Pep’s Barca. The philosophy and the ideas are simmilar, in some points identical. But Pep now has different tools to build his team. No Xavi, no Busquets, no Messi, but Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger and Lahm.
If you have a different tool box, you need differnt ways to solve a problem.

Diverinho on August 14, 2013 at 7:39 pm

If Guardiola stays with his 1-2 midfield triangle (one 6, two 8), he will ‘fail’ at Bayern. Fail in the sense of being less successful and less strong than the previous season. The reason, imo, is that Bayern does not have a player suited very well for the sole holding role. The exception might be Kirchhoff, but he is very young and inexperienced. All the other defensive midfielders (Schweini, Martinez, Gustavo, (Kroos)) have a background of playing double-pivot. The offensive midfielders (Tiago, Kroos, Götze, …) are neither suited to playing the lone 6. As a consequence, Gustavo will leave the club, and Bayern have a problem if they ever want to go back to double pivot – no backup for Schweini-Martinez.

hwk on August 15, 2013 at 1:21 pm

maybe you are right, but maybe Guardiola paints a different picture.

the role and positioning of the full backs is very interesing. they often cover space next to the sole holding player. I assume that is his answer to support the holding player.

wewew78 on August 14, 2013 at 8:05 pm

imo he can still switch back to double pivot without gustavo… kirchoff seems to be a good replacement for martinez to give him rest in less important matches, and unlike last season, schweinsteiger has a replacement now… as there are 2 players more who can play either as an 8 or a 10 (kroos, thiago), either of them can replace schweinsteiger… even if one of them gets injured, with götze, who can be the 10, there’s still enough players….

the squad is just perfect this season, let’s see how pep uses it

lopez on August 15, 2013 at 11:13 am

At Bayern, Pep has a bunch of players available to play in at least two entirely different ways. A ’system based’ way, the way they played last season, installed by Van Gaal. Or a non-system way, let’s call it like that, with freedom for Goetze, Robben, Ribery, Kroos. Every player in his own zone (Van Gaal), or the team keeping the whole pitch occupied as they think necessary.

WA Kopper on August 16, 2013 at 2:36 am

Welcome back ZM, and this match is how I expected you’d end you summer haitus. Well done as usual!